Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Tulsa Academic Center

The Tulsa Academic Center, which is in the former Lindsey Elementary School facility at 2740 E. 41st St. North, is a two-part alternative school for grades six through 12. The program was launched in August 2007. Students who are suspended from school can be referred to the Term Academic Program, most for 30 days or less. The most troubled students can be referred to the Performance Training Program (PTP). Superintendent Michael Zolkowski has described PTP as a kind of boot camp designed to improve students’ reading and social skills. PTP students must earn their way back to their home schools by amassing points for attendance, behavior and work completion.

In a series of recent articles inspired by former students, anonymous teachers and various other insiders, the Tulsa Whirled has successfully "turned on the lights" and exposed the debacle that is the alternative school, Tulsa Academic Center. Apparently everything but an education was going on before, during and after school.

The allegations were brought forward and boiled over during a recent school board meeting. Allegations include: Among other things, they described daily physical fights among students, frequent attacks on staff, student enrollment two times the size for which the school was designed, limited classroom materials, and no access by classroom teachers to special education students' Individual Education Programs, which include critical information about the students' unique needs.

It sounds like this place is now a public nuisance and should be closed immediately.

Watch closely and see how a bloated bureaucracy reacts to these charges.